Thomas Breen Photo
With four hours of sometimes passionate debate, Fair Haven Heights environmental activists succeeded in putting off renewal of the permit for the solid waste transfer station at 19 Wheeler St. on the Quinnipiac River.
They did that at a meeting Monday night of the City Plan Commission, when the renewal was under consideration.
The debate ran out the clock. Without taking a vote, City Plan commissioners continued the Monday night Zoom-assisted special public hearing until May 5 at 6 p.m.
In question was renewal of Murphy Road Recycling’s permit to continue processing commercial and municipal solid waste at the riverine facility. The permit must be renewed every five years per state and local ordinances as long as circumstances do not change.
The company’s lawyers, led by Meaghan Miles, reported that since the last renewal, in 2016, improvements have been made to storm water management at the facility, with the addition of catch basins, new curbing and piping, along with other enhancements like bike racks and Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant parking spots. Miles also asserted that residential properties in proximity to the plant have also risen in value.
Local environmental justice advocates came out in force to offer a different perspective.
Seven who spoke against the renewal -– Aaron Goode, Chris Ozyck, Marjorie Shansky, Anstress Farwell, Paul Vercillo, Oliver Gaffney -– also live along the river. One resident adjacent to the facility also spoke against, citing rodents, bad smells, and noise.
No neighbors spoke in favor of the renewal, although two local businesses sent in letters of support.
The meeting echoed the successful community opposition back in 2021 to allowing Murphy Road to add municipal wet garbage to the current dry or non-putrescible waste that it collects. Opposition from activists, the city, and state officials was such that the company in January 2021 withdrew its application for that expanded use.
Monday night’s hearing was not about any of that, argued Miles, but simply about whether conditions had changed adversely, which they had not, she said.
Still, that previous fight was the elephant in the room, along with repeated pleas that the commissioners’ decision take into account area improvements like the new Grand Avenue Bridge that seek to restore and enhance the health of the river and riverine residents, not degrade it.
Miles, beyond the legal arguments, conceded the activists just don’t want Murphy Road’s kind of business along the river. The company and the “voluminous” record it had submitted, she asserted, along with positive health and safety reports from the city and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, warrant an approval by the commissioners.
The commissioners said they decided to delay decision also because they received the City Plan staff report on the matter late. The report recommended approval but with conditions. A potentially critical private consultants’ review of conditions at the plant also had not yet been reviewed by commissioners; read the documents here. to continue the public hearing until May 5.
rodents, bad smells, and noise are quoted in the article. Is that from the neighborhood or the plant?